I sat musing as the world passed by…

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Now that you are here my daughter…

My eyes are adjusting to your presence. The moment when I held you in my hands for the first time seems like a dream. Your being is so surreal that I have to see you again and again to make sure that you are not a figment of my imagination. Your crying sounds like a creaking door and the chap – chap sound you make while drinking milk lands me in convulsions of laughter.

Yes, you have arrived and now that you are here my daughter, I have a few promises to make.

I promise that you will never learn to accept your gender as weak. The idea will never be taught to you.

I promise that you will learn to make your own decisions. I will be there to give my opinion, suggestions and guidance but I will not make decisions for you.

I promise that you will learn to value a human for his thoughts and not for his religion or cast.

I promise that I will be there to help you get up after you fall but I will never stop you from committing what I think are mistakes. I will never strangulate your convictions.

I promise that you will learn to defend yourself and your rights.

I promise that you will know the true significance of this gift of life, that you will value it in all humans above anything else.

I promise that you will understand the significance of hard work, you will understand that success achieved through shortcuts does not mean anything.

I promise you will grow without any cultural shackles. You will never be a part of a family that demands dowry or pray for a baby boy.

I promise you will be taught to respect Mother Earth. You will learn that there is nothing like cultural superiority.

I promise that you will understand that there are only two kinds of humans – the ones who make mistakes and hide them and the ones who accept their mistakes, learn from them and rectify them.

I promise that I will encourage you to fall in love. My opinion about your choice will not matter if you are convinced and happy with your partner. And no, the gender of your partner will not matter.

I promise that I will neither show you off as a trophy nor treat you as a racing horse to further my unfulfilled ambitions.

I promise that I will try my best to incline your interests towards various art forms. I will try my best to make you fall in love with books.

I promise that I will be your best friend. I will listen to you with amusement when you will tell me that your boyfriend got his ears pierced seven times. I will listen to you with pride when you will tell me that you broke a man’s arm with a karate chop when he tried to harass a lady in the bus.

I promise you my precious Anika that I will love you unconditionally. My love will not change with your successes or failures, your decisions or opinions. My love will not change even if I have to change a hundred diapers a day. It will not change even if I end up being sleep deprived and dream of diapers falling from the sky during my random power naps.

I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you. I am looking forward to see you take your first step, call me dad, laugh out loud, fall in love and live your life.

p.s. I might be blogging erratically for a while because of my busy schedule of changing diapers and burping the baby. Please don’t mind.

Congratulations to the new Daddy nd Mommy.. Lucky Anika is surely a blessed child.. May God always shower his choicest of blessings on her…
And very very eager for Daddy-blog…:-)
Happy burping-diaper changing-singing lullabies… 🙂 🙂

Omg…congrats!!! She is sooo cute…and what a lovely name! Loved the letter and the promises you’ve made. Looking forward to the daddy blog. You’ll be a great dad, I am so sure about that. Congratulations… 🙂

Wow! Woow! Wooow! This came as a real good surprise! Congratulations! It’ s celebration time at the Sharma household! When did she arrive? Hope Geet is doing well? All the best for fatherhood! Amen for the promises! Anika is a lovely name! You’ll be an awesome dad to her! Lots of love & blessings for her! Cuddles & kisses!
P.S: You’ll be missed but it is excused for new parenthood’s sake! God bless!

Awww… congrats to the proud parents. And I love those set of promises you just made to your little one. I’m sure she’s lucky to have you both as you are to have her. You’ll make a great dad.
We don’t mind daddy posts at all 🙂 Keep ’em coming.

Hearty congratulations to you and Geets! I wish you good luck and strength in achieving each and every one of your beautiful promises. She’d be delighted to read them when she grows up. All the very best, Amit!! And here’s to sleepless nights and rough days !! 🙂

happy happy birthday to the lil princess and loads of happy diaper changing months to new parents 🙂 🙂 baby is just cute 🙂 🙂 she doesn’t look like a new born!!! 🙂 🙂 I simply loved the post script 😀 😀 😀 😀 he he !!!! this burp factor is most difficult to say girl!!!!

I usually don’t like to go all ‘Awwww’ over things, but this one is so sweet. Father-daughter relationship is one of a kind. May be one of the best relationships. I wish you and your sweet family all the best. 🙂

Blah! Became all mushy after reading this post. What a lovely name – Anika! She is blessed to have you as her dad. We need more dads like you around. I hope she inherits your sense of humour as well as rational and progressive thinking.

What are you talking about!! OF COURSE we’d love to see this become a daddy blog for sometime! 🙂

She is an angel, Amit. Loads of blessings for her… she is a lucky girl. I wish every father made this promise to his daughters. My father didn’t promise me all this, but he has actually shown it in action. He has been my greatest support and I am more than the son he never had. And I am enough. I love him.. and your post made me emotional. This post should be shared until it goes viral.
Anika is a beautiful name.

And I promise to make sure me and TBH take a cue from you when we become parents :). I have a feeling I will be a super obsessed mom, and that feeling kills me :(.
Anika is super cute and super lucky to have a dad like you.

P.S and no, we would not mind a but having a daddy blog 🙂 make it happen.

Congrats , Just Like you I have been also blessed with a Baby Girl this time.I Really Feel Full of Joy .
I am printing your Promise to your Daughter for my Daughter , I have already promised this to her even before she was born , not only to her but my Future DIL too as I have a Son too.

Congrats and Congrats to your Daughter for having a Sane Father.
Give my Luv to the little princess…
– FIB

I hope to be a non existent person as an MIL.Let them be.
But thinking how to make my daughter handle the crazy Indian World, despite of all the strength I will infuse in her…May be she may marry some Non Indian…or surely A Sane Indian…Boys flip after marriage like my husband …so lets see , I will support her always and make her strong enough to guide her self ..